Peel has said there is “still work to do” before construction work can begin on the first housing development at Wirral Waters which was given consent at the council’s planning committee last week.

The scheme at Wirral Waters One features 500 one and two-bed apartments, dock-edge walkways, gardens, and terraces, along with pedestrian and cycleway connections. Designed by Glenn Howells Architects, the project also features 100 affordable homes.

Wirral Council’s planning committee gave the green light to a reserved matters application for the project at a meeting last Thursday, potentially allowing construction work to begin. Aviva is already on board to provide funding.

Peel, which is bringing forward the project alongside the council and fellow developer Legacy, previously set an August 2019 start date for the £90m scheme.

However, following approval, a spokesperson for Peel Land & Property said there was still “work to do to satisfy the many conditions of the transaction and the procurement regulations that have been imposed before the start of work on site”.

It is understood some of the issues relate to how the project will be tendered for construction, and Peel’s obligations under the delivery and maintenance structure for the scheme.

“This is a really important step in the planning process and means that we are another step closer to making these 500 new homes a reality,” said the spokesperson.

“We are very eager to get on site now, however, we still have several legal obstacles and conditions to overcome. We are working hard to satisfy these conditions so that we can move this project forward and get the build underway.

“This will be the first residential development at Wirral Waters and, with a very high standard of design quality and sustainability, it will make Wirral Waters an incredible place to live and will be a benchmark for future residential developments.”

Under Peel’s timeline outlined in October, a construction tender to be issued in March 2019, with construction starting on site in August that year.

Under the agreement with Wirral Council, Peel will be responsible for the management of the homes for the first 10 years; for the following 40 years, the commercial risks will be transferred to the council and the council will also be responsible for letting and managing the apartments.

The professional team on the project also includes Re-Form Landscape Architects; planner Turley; masterplanner Parkinson; and transport consultant Vectos.

Wirral Council leader, Cllr Phil Davies, added: “The approval of this planning application represents a major breakthrough for Wirral Waters and will play a significant part in helping us to deliver new housing.

“We are seeing huge confidence in Wirral as an area to invest in at the moment. Our plans for regeneration throughout the borough are gaining momentum and I believe this will help kick-start further development on one of Wirral’s key regeneration sites.

“These types of schemes are always difficult for private developers to make viable, but Wirral Council has continued to show its commitment to this development – demonstrated by how we have stepped in and made it work, securing national funding to improve local infrastructure and devising a commercial approach to bring the scheme to fruition.”

The last 12 months have seen planning applications for offices and £20m Maritime knowledge hub at Wirral Waters. At the same time as putting in plans for the residential at East Float, planner Turley also submitted proposals for 400,000 sq ft of offices.

The 30-year regeneration project aims to rejuvenate the inner Wirral and create up to 20,000 new jobs and 14,000 new homes.

M Thomas – It’s easy to accuse developers of land banking. Peel aren’t to blame for the state Wirral find themselves in. Peel obtained planning permission in principle for 12,500 houses – that doesn’t mean they can start building them. They need to prepare and submit detailed plans for consideration by WBC. That’s what is happening now.

The delivery (or lack of) housing at the Peel site makes very little difference to the Local Plan. The Plan needs to provide the right homes in the right places – a load of 1 and 2 bed apartments in Birkenhead does little to address the chronic undersupply of family housing across the rest of Wirral.

Chronic undersupply? Have you looked at Rightmove? We don’t have a supply issue far from it.

Everything points towards the exact opposite of what you propose. It is indeed 1 and 2 bed proprieties we need for our ageing population, thus freeing up the larger houses they currently occupy. The census shows this along with the studies done by WBC.

Wirral has no major employers, it does have an ageing and declining population. Stuffing more family houses in everywhere doesn’t help anyone, especially when local schools are full and the road network cannot cope. Having to commute to work is a nightmare, M53 junction 4 is ridiculous, trying to get ono the M56 past the Eastham junction is a joke. Just look at the state of the A41! what a planning catastrophe this is, Housing development one after another spouting up from every orifice. Once a road that could be navigated at the speed limit 40mph, now resigned to set after set of traffic lights feeding crammed in shoeboxes sold as family homes.

You must remember we are a Peninsula, we cannot grow like a normal town as we are bound by three side of water. Before we overburden the inadequate service and infrastructure provisions we do have, why not create a demand by bringing industry into the area?

I realise housebuilders want to build here regardless but it doesn’t help, people will still commute away from the Wirral. A very short term gain for greedy housebuilders only and nothing put back into the local community.

I actually support Wirral Waters as its vision was to create a business sector and demand, yes indeed once this is busy build the exec and family homes, there is simply though no requirement for it on the Wirral now or indeed within the next 30 years until Wirral Waters has materialised.

I do hope Wirral Waters succeeds, I would rather see though more collaboration with WBC so the local plan can take credit for the proposed housing it intends otherwise we will see more shoeboxes popping up on our greenbelt with now investment in local infrastructure.

Any development that increases traffic around the A41 or M53 Junction 4 is plain ridiculous and doesn’t help anyone.

M Thomas: ‘You must remember we are a Peninsula, we cannot grow like a normal town as we are bound by three side of water’ … err… Manhattan? The density of Birkenhead desperately needs to be re-established to make it not only viable, but also take advantage of a booming Liverpool just over the water.

Yes great Manhattan, I think certain Wirral councillors have made that comparison also! Which bit exactly are you comparing? The booming employment sectors of Manhattan perhaps? The investment in infrastructure maybe?

Yes Manhattan indeed, we can always aspire to this but where I ask you is the demand, jobs and infrastructure for our Manhattan

As I said create the demand first, there simply isn’t any though yet on the Wirral. Build Wirral Waters with the tech park to create high value jobs and maybe just maybe you could justify 5000 extra homes.

The proof will be in actual sales as can be seen historically on the Wirral it’s around 300dpa and no more